Fresh Air Fund opens new vistas for kids

By Carolyn Sistrand Daily News Correspondent

Thursday

Jul 12, 2018 at 9:32 PMJul 13, 2018 at 12:09 PM

SHERBORN - When the Fresh Air kids are asked to say what they love about coming to Massachusetts, the quiet is a universal answer. Coming from the inner city, the kids are amazed at the peace that falls upon the neighborhoods at night and the darkness of the streets when the sun sets.

For one week during July or August, the Fresh Air Fund sends a bus of New York City children to communities along the East Coast and Southern Canada to spend a week with host families enjoying summer outside the city.

On Monday, 22 children arrived at Bennett-Hemenway School in Natick to stay with families in and around MetroWest.

“Usually the week before or the night before she will call me or I’ll call her and she will tell us what we are going to do in the following week and I get so excited and my adrenaline starts pumping,” said Tre’Kyah, 14. “When I go it is like ‘what are we going to do first?’”

Tre’Kyah, along with two other Fresh Air girls, join Stenie Gullans and her husband every year as a part of the program. This is Tre’Kyah’s third year with the Gullans’.

Hosting Fresh Air kids started eight years ago for the Gullanses, when their daughter proposed the idea. Now, Gullans is a co-chairman for the foundation’s local initiative and is in charge of recruiting and interviewing potential host families for the area.

Bill Seymour, along with his wife Rosemary Driscoll, were recruited by Gullans three years ago. The couple have a 27-year-old daughter, so taking in Noah and Elijah every summer has been both a treat and a learning experience.

“It’s nice to give the kids from New York a chance to come out and see something they, I assume, don’t normally see,” said Seymour. “I guess they didn’t have a bad time because they have come back now two years in a row.”

Seymour said the exposure of different kinds of people living in different parts of the world will allow the children to gain experience and understanding that people, at the end of the day, are all the same.

With all the lessons he hopes Noah and Elijah gain, Seymour is grateful of what these boys have taught him — from the newest Marvel comics and to their favorite video games.

“It’s really nice to be with some younger folks to hear what they think about and what is important to them,” said Seymour. “That’s educational and entertaining.”

As the week progresses, many more activities are planned like days by the pool, bikes rides around the quiet neighborhood roads and running through the grass on a beautiful summer day.

The newest activity that Stenie Gullans and Tre’Kyah are looking forward to on Friday, which happens to be on Stenie's birthday, is zip lining.

“I think the biggest lesson Stenie has taught me is to have fun while you can. She’s doing crazier things every year,” said Tre’Kyah. “You only live once. She’s just living her life to the fullest and I want to do that. I would never do this on my own and I know Stenie will push me to do it.”

For the Gullanses and the rest of the host families, the relationships that they build with these kids last longer than this one week together. For the kids, they will head home on Monday anticipating the next summer they get to spend with their new family.